HUNTINGTON, West Virginia - UAB's defense never stood a chance against Marshall's high-powered offense, but two early Blazer fumbles sealed the deal in a 56-14 loss at Joan C. Edwards Stadium.

The first one came on UAB's first drive, when quarterback Jonathan Perry fumbled and Marshall recovered at the UAB 12, scoring in just two plays.

UAB battled back and had a nice drive going at the end of the second half. Down 28-14, UAB running back Jordan Howard - who ran for 123 yards in the game - ran for 15 yards to the Marshall 10, but Taj Letman forced a fumble that Marshall recovered with 1:36 left in the half.

Marshall went 89 yards on just five plays - including a 50-yard pass from Rakeem Cato to Gator Hoskins - and scored with 20 seconds left to go ahead 35-14 at the half and cruise to the win.

"I thought that if we could get it into halftime at 28-21 with the momentum, we'd be in pretty good shape," UAB head coach Garrick McGee said. "We had a good drive going. The kid put his helmet right on the ball and knocked the ball out. Jordan's pretty good with ball security. That swing was tough emotionally for us."

After Marshall's first score, UAB went 75 yards in seven plays - 58 on a pass from Perry to Jamarcus Nelson - and scored on a 2-yard touchdown run by Darrin Reaves.

Marshall led 28-7 in the second quarter, but UAB scored with 8:45 left in the half on a 32-yard pass from Perry to Reaves.

The drive which ended on Howard's fumble came after a blocked field goal by UAB's Jontavious Morris.

"One was real early and we still thought we had a chance," UAB offensive lineman Cameron Blankenship said. "The other one kind of killed the drive and killed the momentum we had and kind of sucked the momentum out of us."

The fumbles may have killed momentum, but Marshall's offense killed UAB's hope. Marshall had 657 total yards against UAB - a season-high for any team against the Blazers.

UAB held the ball for 39:01, but Marshall averaged 12.6 yards per play. Marshall's 657 total yards were sixth-best in school history.

"They were big plays," McGee said. "There were missed tackles. They were running inside zone. That's all they were running."

Marshall had 381 yards on the ground. It was the first time in school history that the Thundering Herd had three backs rush for more than 100 yards in a game. Steward Butler ran for 139 yards on seven carries. Essray Taliaferro ran for 118 yards on 12 carries. Kevin Grooms ran for 109 yards on eight carries.

Cato hit 14-of-20 passes for 276 yards and three touchdowns. Tommy Shuler had six catches for 100 yards.

"They really didn't have a secret," said Morris, a defensive tackle for UAB. "They saw we were in a 3-man front. They felt like their five (linemen) could take on our four (three linemen, one linebacker). We had one linebacker in the box. It was a matter of us having good gap control so we could control the run."